Although this cuvee was freshly bottled the week I tasted it, it performed fabulously well. The dark ruby/purple-colored 2004 Zinfandel Highwire Vineyard (a 96-year old vineyard) boasts copious quantities of blackberry, licorice, peppery, briery fruit and spice, good underlying acidity, and a full-throttle, blockbuster finish. Consume it over the next 7-8 years. The Zinfandels, fashioned from old head-pruned Russian River vineyards, are 100% destemmed, but as many whole berries as possible are utilized in the wines’ fermentations, and the wines are aged in French oak. In terms of complexity, richness, and quality, Hartford Court’s Zins rank alongside those of Turley Wine Cellars.
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